Never Satisfied

March 12, 2009 by in Books & News, literature, publishing, women, writing | 1 Comment

When I was eighteen or nineteen, my then boyfriend gave me a children’s book called Never Satisfied as a gift. On each page of the book, the narrator keeps complaining to his friend that “nothing ever happens around here.” Meanwhile, in the background, the readers watch as somebody starts throwing animals and furniture–a couch, a piano–out of the second story window of a building. The narrator never gets it, never sees all the exciting things happening all around him. Rather, he just keeps complaining that life is boring. I got the gentle message that Tommy was sending, that I was so focused on the life I *wanted*, on my goals and dreams, that I never got around to appreciating the life I already had.

I wish I could say that seeing the truth changed how I lived or how I looked at the world. But it didn’t. To this day, “never satisfied’ describes the emotional core of my life.

Now, there are a lot of ways that you could interpret the phrase “never satisfied.” Some women always want more wealth, more things, expensive jewlery, flashy material items. Read More

Just Be Your Quirky Self

I am reading Ariel Gore’s How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead because, of course, my daily angst is all about how I’m not a famous writer yet. It’s a great book. Read it. You can buy it directly from Ariel herself at Yo Mama’s Bookshop and she will make more money than if you buy it from Amazon or in your bookstore. That way, you are supporting your local artist (or not so local, if you don’t live anywhere near Portland) instead of the evil corporation that is, in this case, Three Rivers Press (a division of Random House, which is also my publisher, and WHOM I LOVE.) I love Ariel’s DIY philosphy which pervades every page of the book. She’s not saying, “Don’t go with the big presses,” she’s simply pointing out the myriad of ways (yes, Ariel, I used the word myriad!) to get your writing out into this world.

Here’s my problem with books like this one: Now I want to be an anarchist! Now I want to create and print hip zines and declare my allegiance to the underworld! Now I want to become a radical feminist lesbian communist revolutionary and publish things that really change the world!

Only my problem is, I don’t know anybody in the underworld. Unless you count the homeless teenagers I work with every Friday afternoon in San Francisco’s Haight district.

And frankly, I’ve never been good at revolution: I was never into the punk scene; I have always been pretty straight (with some bi inklings on occasion, like when I kissed a girl on the neck and thought, “Wow, she smells really nice,” but that sure never flowered into full-on gay fruition); and unfortunately for my image, I never joined a revolutionary movement (but I am pretty damn sure I would look sexy in fatigues, holding a machine gun. SEE ABOVE & BELOW!).

I’m just this pacifist, who isn’t very radical about it though I kind of want to be; a truly terrible Catholic–at least, any conservative Catholic would be pretty much appalled by my viewpoints which I won’t list here for fear of appalling a number of conservative Catholics who read my blog regularly, but they’re probably all the things they’d guess at anyway, that anybody reading this would guess at; an advocate for immigrants and a lover of all things African except, of course, genocide and kleptocracies; recognized by some as a hippie, others as a lover of reggae & Afro-pop & indie music; and obsessed with studying liberation movements of all kind, especially those that link religion with Marxism, or religion with violent revolution.

Probably the weirdest thing about me is how much I like teenagers, whether they’re dorky, goth, depressed, cool, smart, not so smart, suicidal, druggies, pretend druggies, alternative, mainstream, artsy-fartsy, science-geek, etc etc so on and so forth. The only teenagers I don’t like are cheerleaders, which I have tried to get over so I could like Claire of save the cheerleader, save the world fame.

And that, of course, is all part of Ariel’s message in the end: just be your own quirky self, gravy stains on your T-shirt and all.

Yeah, so I guess I won’t be going the way of radical revolutionary anytime soon. But I am becoming a publisher, or rather, I have become a publisher, and I hope to venture into the world of ezines and zines in the next couple of months, and in the meantime, I keep writing my stuff for publication in traditional formats.

It’s all part of feeding the beast.

Books: Doing the Work of God

October 24, 2008 by Jess in Books & News, publishing | Leave a comment

I had a two hour longÂ conversation today with the editor of a small publishing company here in the Bay Area that specializes in science fiction. We were discussing the nature of y. a. literature, and I said that I think I write y.a. literature for two reasons. “It was what I loved to read as a kid, and I never stopped loving to read it,” I said. “And I guess that’s really the only reason I write y.a. literature. But when someone asks me why, and I feel compelled to give a writerly answer, I say, ‘Teenagers change more in one month than most adults do in a year or even two years. Who wouldn’t find that kind of time period exciting to write about?’”

I just had to quote his response! I’m not naming him because I’m not sure he wants to be quoted but first he talked about how the concept of homosexuality was never bizarre to him because he first encountered it in science fiction literature when he was in fourth grade. So by the time he actually met gays and lesbians and transgendered folks, they felt familiar to him. I would have to say likewise to all sorts of concepts we meet in books for the first time–concepts like redemption, and acceptance of others, and joy-pain-sorrow.

“The truth is,” he said, “books are transformative and subversive. By publishing books, I’m doing the work of God.”

The Gatekeepers

My previous post about The Cool Kids reminded me of the panel I organized for REFORMA’s National Conference in September. The panel consisted of the only 3 y.a. writers that I am aware of who have ever had a published young adult novel set in El Paso, Texas–J.L. Powers (me), Benjamin Alire Saenz, and Claudia Guadalupe Martinez; more depressing still, or perhaps more exhilarating still ifÂ you want to be unique, we are among only a handful-and-a-half of y.a. writers who have set our novels on the U.S.-Mexico Border. We were discussing why there are so few novels for teenagers that are set on the peripheries of our nation. Now, by peripheries, I don’t mean necessarily the borders, because teenagers in Minnesota are still growing up in mainstream society, whereas teenagers in El Paso are definitely not!

Benjamin Alire Saenz began to get quite excited as he discussed how the gatekeepers in the book world–agents, editors, publishers, and then librarians, teachers, and booksellers–have ghettoized literature about latinos set in a predominantly latino world such as El Paso. He mentioned how one of his books received a review that said something like “even though Saenz’s novel is set in El Paso, its themes resonate with the human condition, with things people everywhere grapple with.” (I’m paraphrasing.) Ben wanted to know why nobody ever writes a book review that says “even though so-and-so’s novel is set in New York, its themes resonate…etc. etc.” Ben sure knows how to stick it to The Man! I love the fact that he has remained faithful to his values, of writing about Latinos, of writing about El Paso, from El Paso. That fame and fortune aren’t why he writes.

I’m still young enough that fame and fortune seem elusively tantalizing. But when I really reflect on it, it’s nice not to be completely in the limelight. I remember remarking to Sara Zarr once that I wished my books sold as well as hers, and got as many reviews as hers, and she just said, “Careful what you wish for.” Touche!

(No title)

October 21, 2008 by Jess in Books & News, Catalyst Book Press, publishing, writing | Leave a comment

This weekend, I had three appearances at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison. Here I am, appearing on a panel with (from left to right) Marlene Kim Connor Lynch of Connor Literary Agency, Nichole Shields of Connor Literary Agency, Marcela Landres (editorial consultant), Jessica Powers of Catalyst Book Press, and Ken Waldman, Alaska’s Fiddling Poet and author of Are You Famous? Touring America With Alaska’s Fiddling Poet, published by Catalyst Book Press.

Smell of Old Lady Perfume–Interview with Claudia Guadalupe Martinez

June 23, 2008 by Jess in book review, Books & News, Children's, El Paso, latino/a, literature, publishing, Social Issues, women, writing, Young Adult | Leave a comment

Recently, I wrote an article for El Paso Magazine and interviewed Claudia Guadalupe Martinez, whose new young adult book Smell of Old Lady Perfume, is due out from Cinco Puntos Press in July.Â I’m republishing the interview in its entirety here, since most of it couldn’t be used for the short article.

Q. What inspired you to write Smell of Old Lady Perfume?

Martinez Answer: My dad passed away when I was eleven. Back then, we didnâ€™t really talk about it. We were kind of expected to be strong and not to burden my mom any further. When you grow up in a community where you have a lot of older brothers and sisters, they affect how you should act and carry yourself, and I remember them telling us to be mature about it and not be a burden to her and try to be strong, which is not very realistic for a kid that age. We just dealt with it internally, so when I started writing about it, it was an opportunity to deal with it externally. Read More

Why I Write For Children: Authors Explain at the Children’s Authors Breakfast at the BEA

June 1, 2008 by Jess in art, BEA, Books & News, Children's, literature, publishing, writing, Young Adult | 3 Comments

I had a great time at the Children’s Authors Breakfast at the BEA. I can only wish that I was as funny as Eoin Colfer andÂ Sherman Alexie, and I can also only wish that someday I’ll be as big as Judy Blume and Neil Gaiman. I was particularly anxious to hear them talk about why they write for children, as I’ll need to make an argument for more latino/-a writers writing for children at the Reforma National Conference in September.

Yes, Colfer really does look that geeky in real life.

Publisher’s Weekly has kindly written an article on the breakfast, saving me the trouble, but actually, it was much funnier in person than what the stolid article can possibly recreate. And yes, potty-mouth was the order of the day, as you can see from a few of the quotes…..even though all four of the writers involved don’t use a lot of profanity in their writing.

For me, the highlights were not the quotes that PW used in its article. I was interested in Sherman Alexie’s references to how books saved him as a kid: Read More

Facebook Scandal

May 8, 2008 by Jess in classroom behavior, dogs, education, El Paso, free culture, free speech, power, public schools, publishing, Social Issues, writing, Young Adult | Leave a comment

Although I am a huge fan of the ability to easily publish things on the internet–maybe I’m more into free culture than I realized–I’ve also wondered how many problems crop up. I’ve looked occasionally at ratemyprofessor.com, and though I’ve never been rated (either my students don’t love me enough or don’t hate me enough to rate me, though actually I think it has more to do with the lack of technological know-how among El Paso community college students), I’ve frequently wondered what I would do or how I would feel if one of my students wrote a bad comment about me. The New York Times today has an interesting article about what happened when some teachers at a very elite private school in New York CityÂ privately logged on to Facebook and found some hate groups directed at themselves. Scandals like these lead to questions about what “free speech” really is and really means, what privacy is and what it means, and whether posting something on a supposedly “private” site like Facebook (which is still accessed by millions of people) is actually “private” or whether it’s “publication” and thus subject to defamation claims.

The Problem With Professionalization

April 10, 2008 by Jess in Africa, art, Books & News, Catalyst Book Press, development, education, literature, power, publishing, traditional healing, traditional medicine, writing | 7 Comments

I posted this on Catalyst Book Press’s blog but thought it appropriate for this one as well. Â

Iâ€™ve been thinking a lot lately about the problems with professionalization or the problems that institutionalization brings to professions. Although Iâ€™ve been thinking about this problem for several years, it has really come to the forefront of my mind because Iâ€™m teaching a class on Health & Healing in Sub-Saharan Africa at Stanford this spring. The first week of school, I had my students read an essay by Steve Feierman and an excerpt from a book by John M. Janzen. Both scholars touch on the medical â€œpluralismâ€ that exists in African today: though colonial states and missionaries brought biomedical health systems to the continent, they never replaced indigenous healing systems. Today, Africans (educated and uneducated, Christian or Muslim or other) access both systems for different illnesses, recognizing the legitimacy of both systems. Some of my students really struggled with this, inherently believing that biomedicine is superior because itâ€™s based on empirical evidence. Both Feierman and Janzen attempt to disprove this assumption, arguing that indigenous healing systems are also based on empirical evidence and long periods of testing different treatments. They also point out that just as indigenous health systems offer cures that are based outside of this western scientific paradigm, western science is also based on unexamined assumptions that sometimes limit its effectiveness or its ability to recognize the validity of certain cures because they are untestable or outside the system. Healing, Feierman pointed out, is mysterious. Read More

Being a writer AND a publisher

January 24, 2008 by Jess in Catalyst Book Press, literature, publishing, writing | 3 Comments

I got an email from Lee Byrd at Cinco Puntos Press today, telling me that Bobby always said he shot himself in one foot when he decided to become a poet and shot himself in the other foot when he decided to become a publisher. Then she said, “Well, you already know what it’s like not to be able to walk.” (She’s referring to the 3 months I spent in a wheelchair post-getting-hit-by-a-truck-twice while I was trying to cross a busy intersection.)

This is what scares me MOST about this new venture. The last two years in the Ph.D. program, it’s been hard hard hard to do both. I readily admit it. I am miserable, trying to do both at the same time. When I’m just writing, I’m fine. When I’m just doing the Ph.D., I’m fine (well, not fine, exactly, because I’m miserable when I’m not writing but it’s not as stressful as trying to do both at the same time.) My adviser, who has always been incredibly supportive, has told me just this: You can do both, he has said several times, but you probably can’t do both at exactly the same time. He might have used the word “sequencing.”

And now I’m publishing books. Am I crazy?

Yes, somebody shoot me now.

But this is precisely why I’m a) going to keep the number of books I publish small, very small and b) not follow the traditional publishing format.Â Tons more on that at the press’s blog, of course, in coming weeks. And here.